Geographic Range
Lepas anatifera
is a cosmopolitan barnacle, inhabiting most tropical and temperate seas throughout
the world.
- Biogeographic Regions
- nearctic
- palearctic
- neotropical
- australian
- oceanic islands
- atlantic ocean
- pacific ocean
- Other Geographic Terms
- cosmopolitan
Habitat
Lepas anatifera
is a pelagic barnacle that can be found attached to a variety of floating objects,
including driftwood, bottles, boats, buoys, macroalgal rafts, and turtles. It can
also be found on fixed objects such as rocks and off-shore structures. This species
is most abundant in tropical and subtropical waters where sea temperatures exceed
18-20 ºC.
- Habitat Regions
- temperate
- saltwater or marine
- Other Habitat Features
- intertidal or littoral
Physical Description
The main characteristic of
Lepas anatifera
is its heart-shaped bivalve shell, called a capitulum, that can grow up to 5 cm in
length and surrounds the body and limbs. The capitulum is composed of five striated,
glossy white, calcareous plates. The first pair of calcareous plates are located at
the aperture and the end of the peduncle. The second pair is more distal, located
near the aperture. The fifth plate, the carina, creates a spine that connects all
the valves to one another. The capitular valve allows extrusion and extraction of
six food-catching tentacular structures called cirri. The barnacle attaches to objects
using its stalk or peduncle, which ranges in length from 4-90 cm. The peduncle is
a part of the head and is attached by a basal disc and covered by a tough cuticle
that is unarmored and flexible. Beneath the cuticle lie longitudinal muscles. Attachment
is maintained with cement produced from the glands of the peduncle.
- Other Physical Features
- ectothermic
- heterothermic
- bilateral symmetry
Development
The eggs of
Lepas anatifera
are about 140-260 X 100-120 microns and hatch into free swimming larvae that undergo
six specialized naupliar stages. Development to the 10 mm long, plankton-eating stage
VI can take up to two months. The larvae then transforms into a cyprid, which is a
non-feeding search and settlement stage. The cyprid larvae drift along the ocean currents
until it identifies and attaches to a substratum. Once they are attached, cirri develop.
Lepas anatifera
reaches sexual maturity when the capitulum reaches 2.5 cm across. Sexual maturity
occurs more slowly in cold waters than in warmer waters. Approximately 120 days after
settlement these barnacles develop reproductive organs at temperatures between 10.2
to 18.4 ºC, but the reproductive development takes 30 days if the surface temperature
of the water is around 25 ºC.
- Development - Life Cycle
- metamorphosis
Reproduction
Unlike most barnacles,
Lepas anatifera
is hermaphroditic and individuals cross fertilize via a copulatory organ. The large
protrusible penis is located on the ventral surface of the abdomen and its top is
the opening of the male gonopore. The female gonopores are associated with the base
of the first cirri.
Fertilization is internal and the young are brooded in the mantle cavity before they
are released.
- Key Reproductive Features
- simultaneous hermaphrodite
- sexual
- fertilization
- ovoviviparous
In
Lepas anatifera
, cross fertilization is followed by oviposition of the eggs in the mantle cavity.
After oviposition they develop past their first embryonic stages. The newly fertilized
eggs develop for about a week before being released as free swimming nauplii.
- Parental Investment
-
pre-fertilization
- provisioning
-
pre-hatching/birth
-
protecting
- female
-
protecting
Lifespan/Longevity
Information about the lifespan of
Lepas anatifera
is not available, but some barnacle species live around six years or longer.
Behavior
Barnacles feed by using tentacular frills on their limbs called cirri. The legs and cirri are extended from between the valves of the captiulum.
Goose barnacles are sessile; they do not move unless they are torn from their current
substrate.
- Key Behaviors
- sessile
Communication and Perception
Little is noted about the communication in Lepas anatifera .
Food Habits
Lepas anatifera
is predatory, capturing prey (shrimp, polyps, young flying fish) with the cirri.
Goose barnacles also filter currents, using a feathery filter feeding apparatus. Populations
of
L. anatifera
can also be divided into two groups-monophagous and polyphagous consumers. These
two groups differ in their prey size, location, diet composition and diversity, and
feeding apparatus morphology.
- Animal Foods
- fish
- terrestrial non-insect arthropods
- aquatic or marine worms
- aquatic crustaceans
- cnidarians
- other marine invertebrates
- zooplankton
- Foraging Behavior
- filter-feeding
Predation
Adult Lepas anatifera are protected by an outer shell, but still may be preyed on by gastropods, starfish, crabs, and others. As larvae, the barnacles lack a shell, making them vulnerable to planktivores.
Fiona pinnata
, a pelagic sea slug, is a known predator of
Lepas anatifera
. The sea slug uses its jaws to grasp the barnacle near the junction of the stalk
and shell, and then uses its radula to rasp. The barnacle soon gapes open, allowing
the sea slug to consume the prey.
Ecosystem Roles
Adult Lepas anatifera are filter feeders in the water and are food for various other species.
Economic Importance for Humans: Positive
Lepas
is the only genus of barnacles eaten by humans, and is considered a delicacy in some
parts of the world.
- Positive Impacts
- food
Economic Importance for Humans: Negative
Lepas anatifera
often attach to the hulls of ships, increasing the drag and reducing speed and efficiency.
Thus, barnacles are often removed from ships' hulls.
Conservation Status
Lepas anatifera
is common and there are no current conservation programs for this species.
Other Comments
The barnacle goose ( Branta leucopsis ) was once thought to start life as a goose barnacle ( Lepas anatifera ) because no one had ever seen its nest.
Additional Links
Contributors
Renee Mulcrone (editor), Special Projects.
- Nearctic
-
living in the Nearctic biogeographic province, the northern part of the New World. This includes Greenland, the Canadian Arctic islands, and all of the North American as far south as the highlands of central Mexico.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- Palearctic
-
living in the northern part of the Old World. In otherwords, Europe and Asia and northern Africa.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- Neotropical
-
living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- Australian
-
Living in Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, New Guinea and associated islands.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- oceanic islands
-
islands that are not part of continental shelf areas, they are not, and have never been, connected to a continental land mass, most typically these are volcanic islands.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- Atlantic Ocean
-
the body of water between Africa, Europe, the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), and the western hemisphere. It is the second largest ocean in the world after the Pacific Ocean.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- Pacific Ocean
-
body of water between the southern ocean (above 60 degrees south latitude), Australia, Asia, and the western hemisphere. This is the world's largest ocean, covering about 28% of the world's surface.
- native range
-
the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.
- cosmopolitan
-
having a worldwide distribution. Found on all continents (except maybe Antarctica) and in all biogeographic provinces; or in all the major oceans (Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific.
- temperate
-
that region of the Earth between 23.5 degrees North and 60 degrees North (between the Tropic of Cancer and the Arctic Circle) and between 23.5 degrees South and 60 degrees South (between the Tropic of Capricorn and the Antarctic Circle).
- saltwater or marine
-
mainly lives in oceans, seas, or other bodies of salt water.
- pelagic
-
An aquatic biome consisting of the open ocean, far from land, does not include sea bottom (benthic zone).
- coastal
-
the nearshore aquatic habitats near a coast, or shoreline.
- intertidal or littoral
-
the area of shoreline influenced mainly by the tides, between the highest and lowest reaches of the tide. An aquatic habitat.
- ectothermic
-
animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature
- heterothermic
-
having a body temperature that fluctuates with that of the immediate environment; having no mechanism or a poorly developed mechanism for regulating internal body temperature.
- bilateral symmetry
-
having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.
- metamorphosis
-
A large change in the shape or structure of an animal that happens as the animal grows. In insects, "incomplete metamorphosis" is when young animals are similar to adults and change gradually into the adult form, and "complete metamorphosis" is when there is a profound change between larval and adult forms. Butterflies have complete metamorphosis, grasshoppers have incomplete metamorphosis.
- sexual
-
reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female
- fertilization
-
union of egg and spermatozoan
- internal fertilization
-
fertilization takes place within the female's body
- ovoviviparous
-
reproduction in which eggs develop within the maternal body without additional nourishment from the parent and hatch within the parent or immediately after laying.
- sessile
-
non-motile; permanently attached at the base.
Attached to substratum and moving little or not at all. Synapomorphy of the Anthozoa
- tactile
-
uses touch to communicate
- chemical
-
uses smells or other chemicals to communicate
- zooplankton
-
animal constituent of plankton; mainly small crustaceans and fish larvae. (Compare to phytoplankton.)
- filter-feeding
-
a method of feeding where small food particles are filtered from the surrounding water by various mechanisms. Used mainly by aquatic invertebrates, especially plankton, but also by baleen whales.
- food
-
A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.
- carnivore
-
an animal that mainly eats meat
- piscivore
-
an animal that mainly eats fish
References
Abbott, D. 1980. Intertidal Invertebrates of California . Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
Anderson, D. 1994. Barnacles: Structure, Function, Development, and Evolution . London: Chapman & Hall.
Castro, J., J. Santiago, V. Hernandez-Garcia. 1999. Fish associated with aggregation devices off the Canary Islands (Central-East Atlantic). Scientia Marina , 63(3-4): 191-198.
Cowles, D. 2005. " Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1758" (On-line). Accessed July 29, 2012 at http://www.wallawalla.edu/academics/departments/biology/rosario/inverts/Arthropoda/Crustacea/Maxillopoda/Cirripedia/Lepas_anatifera.html .
Donovan, E. 2010. The Natural History of British Shells, Vol I . South Carolina: BiblioBazaar.
NOBANIS, 2008. " Lepas anatifera Linnaeus, 1758 – Common goose barnacle" (On-line). NOBANIS European Network on Invasive Alien Species. Accessed July 29, 2012 at http://www.nobanis.org/MarineIdkey/Barnacles/LepasAnatifera.htm .
Neal, K. 2007. "Common goose barnacle - Lepas anatifera " (On-line). MarLIN - The Marine Life Information Network. Accessed July 29, 2012 at http://www.marlin.ac.uk/speciesfullreview.php?speciesID=3643 .
Patel, B. 1959. The influence of temperature on the reproduction and moulting of Lepas anatifera L. under laboratory conditions. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom , 38(3): 589-597.
Pfeiffer, C., K. Lowe. 1989. Cirral structure of the pedunculated marine barnacle Lepas anatifera L. (Crustacea, Cirripedia) -- I. Ultrastructure of the Neuromuscular Apparatus. Acta Zoologica , 70(4): 243-252.
Southward, A. 2010. "WoRMS" (On-line). World Register of Marine Species. Accessed July 29, 2012 at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=106149 .
Witschi, E. 1935. The chromosomes of hermaphrodites. The Biological Bulletin , 68 (2): 263-267.
Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences. Feeding and spawning of the goose barnacle Lepas anatifera (Cirripedia, Lepadidae) on floating substrates in the open Northwestern Pacific Ocean. 117851. Moscow: Russian Academy of Sciences. 2000.
Wildscreen. 2010. "Goose barnacle ( Lepas anatifera )" (On-line). ARKive. Accessed July 29, 2012 at http://www.arkive.org/goose-barnacle/lepas-anatifera/ .